Pros
- The people are incredible smart and fun. - Ping pong tables, dogs, and snacks - Bike friendly and has showers in the building. - Relaxed environment, but very much a "work hard, play hard" kind of org.
Cons
- Recently announced that it is in the process of being acquired by Oracle, so many of the good things about it being smaller tech company may be disappearing. - In SF, there isn't anything that differentiates this company from other tech companies other than the mission is energy related. But not saving more energy, let's be clear. - Compensation is a joke compared to companies similar to it. Don't let them say they've "rigorously benchmarks" themselves against other companies similar to themselves to give competitive salaries, because they don't reveal which companies they are comparing themselves to. Companies of the same caliber as Opower and the talent Opower expects to hire are not among the companies they seem to be benchmarking against. The free food and perks are a façade so they can spend less on compensation that actually matters. - If they say the people and the mission are what bring people to Opower, only believe the people part. The mission has changed recently, away from helping utilities save more energy and closer to just finding any general way for utilities to talk to their customers. This can lead anybody to assume that energy efficiency isn't doing so well. - Development is hard to come by. You need to be a heavy self-promoter to get noticed, but not all personality types are assertive, even though they are plenty smart/capable. - Internal mobility is difficult to achieve without being buddy-buddy with mid/upper management. And when you get promoted, the compensation increase is laughable.
